Ark. town issues same-sex marriage licenses

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Kristin Seaton held up her marriage license as she left the Carroll County Courthouse with partner Jennifer Rambo.

By Christina HuynhAssociated Press
May 11, 2014

EUREKA SPRINGS, Ark. — Gay marriage arrived in the Bible Belt on Saturday, beginning with two women who had traveled overnight to ensure they would be first in line.

‘‘Thank God,’’ Jennifer Rambo said after Carroll County Deputy Clerk Jane Osborn issued a marriage license to her and Kristin Seaton, a former volleyball player at the University of Arkansas. The Fort Smith couple wed moments later on a sidewalk near the county courthouse; the officiant wore a rainbow-colored dress.

In total, 15 licenses were issued for same-sex couples in northwest Arkansas’ Carroll County, Osborn said after the office closed Saturday.

Pulaski County Circuit Judge Chris Piazza paved the way Friday with a ruling that removed a 10-year-old barrier, saying a constitutional amendment overwhelmingly passed by voters in 2004 banning gay marriage was ‘‘an unconstitutional attempt to narrow the definition of equality.’’ Piazza’s ruling also overturned a 1997 state law banning gay marriage.

But because Piazza didn’t issue a stay, Arkansas’ 75 county clerks were left to decide for themselves whether to grant marriage licenses.

Rambo, 26, and Seaton, 27, were the first gay couple to be legally married in the old Confederacy. They arrived about 2 a.m., slept in a Ford Focus, and awoke every half-hour to make sure no one else would take a spot at the head of the line.

As dawn came, no one was certain that any clerk would issue a marriage license to a same-sex couple. Initially, deputy clerk Lana Gordon said she was not sure she had the authority and shooed the couples from her office.

‘‘We just walked out of here crying,’’ Rambo said.

But once Osborn intervened, other same-sex couples let the couple return to their place in line.

‘‘And some of these people here have been waiting 50 years and they still instructed us to come up front,’’ Rambo said.

It was not immediately known whether any of the state’s other 74 counties were issuing marriage licenses Saturday. Several were open for early voting for the state’s May 20 primary but said they were not prepared to issue marriage licenses.

Piazza’s lack of a stay caused confusion among the state’s county clerks, said Association of Arkansas Counties executive director Chris Villines.

‘‘The court didn’t give us any time to get the kinks worked out,’’ Villines said.

Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said he would appeal the ruling and asked it be suspended during that process. No appeal had been filed as of midday Saturday.

The US Supreme Court last year ruled that a law forbidding the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriages was unconstitutional. Using language similar to that from the Supreme Court, state and federal judges nationwide have struck down other same-sex marriage bans.

Federal judges have ruled against marriage bans in Michigan, Oklahoma, Utah, Virginia, and Texas, and ordered Kentucky, Ohio, and Tennessee to recognize same-sex marriages from other states.

Jerry Cox, president of the Arkansas Family Council, which promoted the gay-marriage ban in 2004, said Piazza’s decision to not suspend his ruling will create confusion if a stay is issued later.

‘‘Are these people married? Are they unmarried?’’ Cox said. ‘‘Judge Piazza did a tremendous disservice to the people of Arkansas by leaving this in limbo.’’